Supreme Court has granted additional time for state lawyers to prove that the capital punishment sentence issued on Hussain Humam, the alleged murderer of the late Parliamentarian for Ungoofaaru Constituency Dr. Afrasheem Ali.
Humam was sentenced on capital punishment charges by Criminal Court on the 16th of January 2014. High Court had supported the ruling by Criminal Court on 7th September 2015. State lawyers had filed the appeal after the state lawyers had failed to file for appeal in Supreme Court.
In today’s hearing, Chief Justice Abdullah Saeed had given time to the state lawyers to prove that the ruling issued by Criminal Court and the support issued by High Court was justified.
State lawyers said that they needed additional time to prepare for the case, as there was no set precedent for cases of this nature. The state lawyers had also requested the Supreme Court to set a precedent on the procedures to be followed in such cases.
Humam’s lawyers had also requested for additional time, adding that they did not have ample time to prepare a defense.
Chief Justice said that the claims made by the defense was not valid as the initial hearings had been held 10 days ago and that was ample time to prepare a defense. He also added that the procedures also state that first hearings of the case must be held five days after the initial hearings and as such the defense lawyers had been granted an additional five days.
Dr. Afrasheem Ali was murdered on the early hours of 1st October 2012, in his residence, H. Funvilu, after he had finished a program at TVM.